"We've only just come--round from
the house. But whatever were you doing here, yourself?"

"I came to see if I could find any trace of Miss Dunlop in this old
part," I answered, "and he told me--just before this happened--she's in
the tower above, and safe. And I'll go up there now, Chisholm; for if
she's heard aught of all this--"

There was another policeman with him, and they stepped past the body and
followed me into the little room and looked round curiously. I left them
whispering, and opened the door that Hollins had pointed out. There was a
stair there, as he had said, set deep in the thick wall, and I went a
long way up it before I came to another door, in which there was a key
set in the lock. And in a moment I had it turned, and there was Maisie,
and I had her in my arms and was flooding her with questions and holding
the light to her face to see if she was safe, all at once.

"You've come to no harm?--you're all right?--you've not been frightened
out of your senses?--how did it all come about?" I rapped out at her.
"Oh, Maisie, I've been seeking for you all day long, and--"

And then, being utterly overwrought, I was giving out, and I suddenly
felt a queer giddiness coming over me; and if it had not been for her, I
should have fallen and maybe fainted, and she saw it, and got me to a
couch from which she had started when I turned the key, and was holding a
glass of water to my lips that she snatched up from a table, and
encouraging me, who should have been consoling her--all within the
minute of my setting eyes on her, and me so weak, as it seemed, that I
could only cling on to her hand, making sure that I had really got her.

"There, there, it's all right, Hugh!" she murmured, patting my arm as if
I had been some child that had just started awake from a bad dream.
"There's no harm come to me at all, barring the weary waiting in this
black hole of a place!--I've had food and drink and a light, as you
see--they promised me I should have no harm when they locked me in. But
oh, it's seemed like it was ages since then!"

"They? Who?" I demanded. "Who locked you in?"

"Sir Gilbert and that butler of his--Hollins," she answered. "I took the
short cut through the grounds here last night, and I ran upon the two of
them at the corner of the ruins, and they stopped me, and wouldn't let me
go, and locked me up here, promising I'd be let out later on."

"Sir Gilbert!" I exclaimed. "You're sure it was Sir Gilbert?